Cuomo team blames state party for mailer, but campaigners say 'no way'

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's reelection campaign has kicked the blame for an inflammatory anti-Cynthia Nixon mailer to the state party, but in New York political circles, skepticism abounds.

The mailer said Nixon was “silent on the rise of anti-semitism” — despite the fact that her children are Jewish — and misrepresented her view on the lightning-rod issue of the campaign to boycott Israel, which she does not support. It sparked a social media firestorm when posted on Twitter Saturday.

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The Cuomo campaign did not clarify whether a campaign staffer or administration official approved the mailer, and campaign manager Maggie Moran did not respond to a request for comment. The mail firm that produced the mailer, Mission Control, declined to comment.

But seven high-level operatives surveyed by POLITICO said that campaign approval would be customary. Usually, a senior staffer would sign off on a mailer, they confirmed. Each operative was given anonymity to speak freely about the issue.

The mailer bore the marker: “Paid for by the State Democratic Committee.” The executive director of the committee, Geoff Berman, quickly became the target of public wrath. Hundreds of tweets were directed at him over the weekend, with Comptroller Scott Stringer among the chorus of those telling him to resign.

Soon after the mailer fervor broke out on Twitter, Berman plainly denied approving the piece: “Absolutely did not,” he wrote. But in a written response sent by the Cuomo campaign Monday, Berman took the hit, as it implied the decision was “internal” to the organization he heads.

“The party does not discuss internal processes but we take this matter very seriously and are putting rigorous controls in place to ensure it never happens again,” he said.

Local campaigners surveyed cast doubt on such a scenario. A down-ballot candidate, perhaps, might not get real approval power on state mailings in his name. But Cuomo? No chance.

“It’s impossible to imagine Cuomo or his team didn’t sign off on this in some way,” one New York City operative said.

At a press availability Sunday, Cuomo implied that the state party had acted independently.

“I’ve instructed them to tell the state party that they better figure out how this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said, the subject of “them” unclear.

“And they better have a better approval process on what they print and what goes out, because it was inappropriate and it’s wrong, and it’s not the tone that I approve of," Cuomo said.

He also pointed to “constituency group operations,” without articulating whether such an entity had any role in the current debacle.

“And apparently they have constituency group operations that do mailings,” Cuomo said Sunday. “There has to be a central approval process that is smarter than what they’re doing now.”

But those with knowledge of the mail process said that there is, in fact, a central approval process for such mailings.

The piece was sent by the Connecticut-based direct mail firm Mission Control, which handles Democratic campaigns and whose clients also include Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, according to its website. Its principal, Ed Peavy, did not respond to requests for comment, and the person answering the phone at the group’s main office said “No comment.”

People with knowledge of the mail process said Mission Control would not have sent the mailer without campaign approval.

The direct mail plan starts with polling, they said. A campaign hands its internal numbers over to a mail firm, which conducts an analysis and comes up with a recommended strategy. It will suggest a plan and calendar for an array of mail pieces generally targeting different demographics. The plan might later shift based on further polling or news.

The mail consultant will then design and write the mail. It is sent to the campaign for approval. Sometimes, a firm might write a “copy and concept” memo on the piece and submit that to a campaign first. Or they might do a draft and go through a few rounds of edits.

The state committee gets a postage discount, as compared to the official campaign, making it the preferred vehicle for campaign correspondence.

The printer then sends a proof to the mail firm and asks for a final sign-off.

The Cuomo campaign referred questions about the approval of the Nixon mailer specifically back to the statement sent from Berman, with “The party does not discuss internal processes” highlighted in yellow.